Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Usf Jamovi Tutorial Project: Open Education Resource, Aline Hitti, Saera Khan

USF OER Faculty Grant

Jamovi is an open source free software that USF staff, faculty and student can download to carry out any statistical analyses. The current report summarizes the progress made on an Open Education Resource Grant funded project, which aimed to created Jamovi tutorials. In this report, student feedback and faculty reaction are summarized after one semester of using the tutorials created.

What Interactive Web Features Are Most Used, Travis Tyler

Experiential Learning Projects

The use of interactive features in websites has become common place on the internet. People use these tools to help navigate and understand the content related to that website. However, due the large variety of websites it can be tricky to understand what features are best to utilize based on the topic of your site. This paper seeks to address this issue by researching how users interact and utilized different features on different websites. Research is gathered via scholarly articles and direct data gathered from volunteers. This data shows users tend to favor more interactive tools to help with navigation, …

Winter 2021

In The Loop

2021 Emmy Nominees; Animator Tapped by Cartoon Network; IndieCade Horizons 2021; Hack4Space; Security Daemons Prevail; Role Models: DePaul Originals Game Studio students build industry-level skills that benefit themselves and others; Frames and Fortune: Eugene Bush programmed his indie video studio with patience and planning; Reality Check: Heather Snyder Quinn augments reality to question systems of unchecked power

All I Want For Christmas..., Channon Visscher

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"JWST [the James Webb Space Telescope] will let us see clearer and further into the ancient and beautiful story of creation."

Posting about new developments in spacecraft from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/all-i-want-for-christmas/

A Note From The Co-Editors, Fayth Schutter

Ideas: Exhibit Catalog for the Honors College Visiting Scholars Series

An introduction to the first issue of the third volume of Ideas Magazine, concerning the work and research of Dr. Shoshana Magnet.

2021 - The Second Annual Fall Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Fall 2021 Symposium of Student Scholars, held on November 18, 2021. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Introduction To Using Python In The Digital Humanities, Elisabeth Shook

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

The materials here are from the Python for Digital Humanities Workshop taught on December 13, 2021 for the Boise State University Digital Humanities Group. This 3-hour workshop was created to provide both a very brief introduction to the various capabilities of Python and a small lesson in using Python to pull meaningful insight out of text files.

The Temple Of Immensity: For Choir And Electronics, Steven Naylor

Honors Projects

the temple of immensity is a composition for 16-part choir and fixed media electronics composed by Steven Naylor using astronomical data concerning the stars nearest to Earth and their properties. “The temple of immensity” is an archaic and rarely used term, defined as “the universe or the complete overhead expanse of the heavens, especially as conceived as an object of religious reverence.” This piece seeks to convey feelings of wonder and awe for outer space through the setting of an original self-composed poem and through the use of star data to determine musical aspects. The resulting 28-minute composition blends voices …

Difficulty In Video Games, Jason Bechdolt

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

Throughout time games have been utilized for a great variety of purposes: relaxing leisure, competitive activity, intellectual exercise, and many other sources of enjoyment. The element of difficulty has existed in various degrees throughout all of those game styles, usually found through the skill of an opponent, but lately many games have been designed to have a digital opponent to provide that difficulty. With access to more information than ever before, people have gotten the chance to witness lives and worlds that they can never physically enjoy, and this has led to a considerable market for games that can provide …

Mechanics Of Ascension Through Genshin Impact, Megan Chao

ART 108: Introduction to Games Studies

Genshin Impact, or Genshin for short, is a free roleplaying, open-world, adventure video game released for Playstation 4, Microsoft Windows, iOS, and Android on September 28th, 2020. Since its initial release, the game has gained considerable recognition for its storytelling ability, in-depth lore, and amazing character and world-building design. They were awarded Apple’s “Game of the Year” in 2020 and have grossed over $100 million from in-app iOS purchases alone.

Determining The Psychosocial Needs Of The Nurses Of Covid-19 Patients, Allison Stevens

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

Nurses are a vital element of the COVID-19 healthcare crisis and have been since the beginning of the COVID-19 response. The professional strain put on nurses included, but is not limited to: changing professional roles, rapidly changing policies and procedures, an influx of patients—particularly of high acuity, and change in workplace morale. However, nurses also had to carry the burdens of living as a member of society, family member, friend, community member, and above all, simply as a person surviving a pandemic themselves. With all of the stressors nurses have endured, it stands to reason that their psychosocial needs have …

Hybridity, Ecocriticism, And Feminist Perspectives In She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power, Sarah Warso

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Children’s cartoons are growing increasingly nuanced in the twenty-first century. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) is an animated television series targeted towards young girls that includes themes of ecocriticism and feminism. The show does this by introducing cyborg, or hybrid, characters. My research explores how cyborg identities in children’s media and their feminist, ecocritical meanings in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. The cyborg, as a feminist mythic hero, breaks down binaries and recodes communication between opposing forces. The She-Ra is filled with characters that inhabit multiple identities. The main character, Adora, identifies as both a former Evil …

Video Games And Their Potential As Literacy Tools, Jessica Reich

University Honors Program Senior Projects

Video games are an essential part of emergent popular culture, with millions playing games every day. With how popular gaming has become, it is logical to research its full potential as a literacy tool both inside and outside the classroom. This thesis contributes to the discussion of the importance and potential of video games as a literacy tool that can be utilized educationally and through gaming at home. This thesis includes a section for gaming definitions, a literature review on research on video games and their impact on education and literacy skill development, a discussion of video game narratives, and …

Perceptions Of High Achieving High School Students Regarding The Professionalization Of Teaching And Their Interest In Becoming Teachers, Jonathan Crossley

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

This study was designed to highlight the factors that contribute to high-achieving high school students not deciding to join the teaching profession. There is growing evidence to indicate that the teaching profession is comprised mostly of educators in their first five years in the profession and educators with more than 25 years of teaching experience. Increasing numbers of educators are leaving the profession within their first five years in a classroom. On the other end of the spectrum, as teachers with more than 25 years of experience ultimately retire, the question remains about the viability of the profession for younger …

Acceleration Skinning: Kinematics-Driven Cartoon Effects For Articulated Characters, Niranjan Kalyanasundaram

All Theses

Secondary effects are key to adding fluidity and style to animation. This thesis introduces the idea of “Acceleration Skinning” following a recent well-received technique, Velocity Skinning, to automatically create secondary motion in character animation by modifying the standard pipeline for skeletal rig skinning. These effects, which animators may refer to as squash and stretch or drag, attempt to create an illusion of inertia. In this thesis, I extend the Velocity Skinning technique to include acceleration for creating a wider gamut of cartoon effects. I explore three new deformers that make use of this Acceleration Skinning framework: followthrough, centripetal stretch, and …

Transboundary Air Quality Governance: A Case Study Of The Paso Del Norte Air Basin 1940-2000, Laura Margarita Uribarri

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For thousands of years, the Paso del Norte region which today includes Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, El Paso, Texas, and Sunland Park, New Mexico, has been a strategic location by virtue of its geographic positioning at the lowest and easiest passage across the continental divide. During the 19th and 20th centuries as railroad networks connected the region to the far reaches of the U.S. and the interior of Mexico, it became a nexus for natural resource and labor extraction. Mining and smelting industries were later joined by agriculture and manufacturing to benefit from the transportation network and the abundance of labor. …

Copycat Mass Killings: How Personality Might Moderate Identification With Antisocial Characters, Emily R. Mazzurco

Kean Quest

Research indicates that certain personality traits are prevalent within mass killers. Aggression, social rejection, narcissism, fame-seeking, low self-esteem, and depression are commonalities with mass killers, specifically mass shooters. Identification or idolizing antisocial fictional characters is also a common behavior within these types of offenders. These types of killers often draw inspiration for their own crimes from past criminals or from film and TV, thus committing what is known as a copycat crime. The purpose of the current study will be to examine the effects of social rejection and instigation on the likelihood of identifying with an antisocial character in young …

The Danov Archive, Victor Fet, Alexander Kogan

Books Published by MU Libraries in MDS

This memorial volume compiles materials about Rostislav Dаnov (1941—1993) of St. Petersburg (Russia), a naturalist, artist, and snake-hunter, who worked for many years in Turkmenistan (West Kopetgagh Mts). The book celebrates Dаnov’s 80th birthday. It includes previously unpublished artwork and scientific illustrations by Dаnov as well as his texts, research papers, various memoirs, biographic information, and unique photographs. The book is intended for everyone who is interested in history of science and conservation in Central Asia and the USSR.

Фет В, Коган А, составители. Дановcкий архив. Библиотека Университета Маршалла, Хантингтон, Западная Виргиния, 2021. 494 с. Этот том содержит материалы о …

Critical Pedagogy In The Time Of Covid-19: Lessons Learned, Carol Christine Hordatt Gentles

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

The abrupt closure of universities due to the coronavirus pandemic caused unprecedented challenges for educators. They struggled to transition to online teaching almost overnight. This has raised questions about the readiness of Higher Education for digitalisation and hybridization of learning environments and focused attention on the renewal of teaching and learning models. It is incumbent upon those who practise critical pedagogy to join this conversation; the mandatory transition has raised difficult questions around how to ensure continuity of an agenda to offer students humanistic and democratic learning experiences in the new virtual reality. In this paper I offer a critical …

Book Review: The Death Project: An Anthology For These Times, Ted D. Ayres

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

A book review of The Death Project: An Anthology for These Times.

Ted Ayres, Social Justice And Education Advocate: "Making It Count" With Book Reviews, Kristen P. Erdem

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This is an interview article with a prolific reviewer of books seen on public television and in print. Ted Ayres had an inspired legal career, and his advocacy continues to this day. The year 2020, like no other year in our recent U.S. history, was a raucous reckoning for an array of social justice issues. As this theme continues in 2021, it is heartwarming getting to know a quiet advocate in our midst. Meet Ted Ayres. Ayres will be a contributor to the journal with book reviews. This is an introduction to the person, Ted Ayres as social justice and …

How The Common School Has Failed Hispanic Children—Witnessing The Severe Regression Of Language English Proficient Learners During A Pandemic: Teaching During Covid-19, Yvonne S. Herrera

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Personal reflection on the impacts of the common school on Hispanic children during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Hispanic children experienced less opportunities in becoming educated due to lack of accessible technology.

Overview: From The Desk Of The Guest Editor, Tonya Huber

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Overview from the Guest Editor on this special issue on the impacts of Covid-19 in educational settings. One theme explored in the contents of this issue is the powerlessness many educators felt as the editors set out to hear, comprehend, represent, and amplify their experiences. Other themes include: appreciation and empathy, focusing on what matters, and new ways of teaching with technology.

Creative Collaborations: Graphic Design For Sustainability Advocacy, Scotty Reifsnyder

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

Professor Scotty Reifsnyder, Art + Design - Creative Collaborations: Graphic Design for Sustainability Advocacy

Species Abundance Distributions And The Canon Of Classical Music, Noelle Atkin

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Generating Music With Sentiments, Chunhui Bao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In this thesis, I focus on the music generation conditional on human sentiments such as positive and negative. As there are no existing large-scale music datasets annotated with sentiment labels, generating high-quality music conditioned on sentiments is hard. I thus build a new dataset consisting of the triplets of lyric, melody and sentiment, without requiring any manual annotations. I utilize an automated sentiment recognition model (based on the BERT trained on Edmonds Dance dataset) to "label'' the music according to the sentiments recognized from its lyrics. I then train the model of generating sentimental music and call the method Sentimental …

A Bert-Based Two-Stage Model For Chinese Chengyu Recommendation, Minghuan Tan, Jing Jiang, Bingtian Dai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In Chinese, Chengyu are fixed phrases consisting of four characters. As a type of idioms, their meanings usually cannot be derived from their component characters. In this paper, we study the task of recommending a Chengyu given a textual context. Observing some of the limitations with existing work, we propose a two-stage model, where during the first stage we re-train a Chinese BERT model by masking out Chengyu from a large Chinese corpus with a wide coverage of Chengyu. During the second stage, we fine-tune the retrained, Chengyu-oriented BERT on a specific Chengyu recommendation dataset. We evaluate this method on …

10th International Conference On Business, Technology And Innovation 2021, University For Business And Technology - Ubt

UBT International Conference

Welcome to IC – UBT 2021

UBT Annual International Conference is the 10th international interdisciplinary peer reviewed conference which publishes works of the scientists as well as practitioners in the area where UBT is active in Education, Research and Development. The UBT aims to implement an integrated strategy to establish itself as an internationally competitive, research-intensive university, committed to the transfer of knowledge and the provision of a world-class education to the most talented students from all background. The main perspective of the conference is to connect the scientists and practitioners from different disciplines in the same place and make …

Benjamin Smith Lyman: Geologist At The Intersection Of Hokkaido, Japan, And The United States, Benjamin Ashby

Masters Theses

Benjamin Smith Lyman was a geologist from Northampton, Massachusetts, who was contracted by the Japanese government in 1872 to carry out coal surveys on the island of Hokkaidō 北海道. What started out as a standard geological survey, quickly evolved into a lifelong interest in Japan for Lyman. The large collection of letters, books, photographs, and other documents housed under the Benjamin Smith Lyman Collection at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, serve as a primary source on both early relations between the Japanese and the West and the beginnings of the large network of academic writings which today can be classified …

Evaluating Cranial Nonmetric Traits In Mummies From Pachacamac, Peru: The Utility Of Semi-Automated Image Segmentation In Paleoradiology, Cameron J. Beason

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Anthropologists employ biodistance analysis to understand past population interactions and relatedness. The objectives of this thesis are twofold: to determine whether a sample of five mummies from the pilgrimage centre, Pachacamac, on the Central Coast of Peru comprised local or non-local individuals through an analysis of cranial nonmetric traits using comparative samples from the North and Central Coasts of Peru and Chile; and to test the utility of machine-learning-based image segmentation in the image analysis software, Dragonfly, to automatically segment CT scans of the mummies such that the cranial nonmetric traits are visible. Results show that while fully automated segmentation …